Alexander Wang Fall Winter 2012 Collection

Saturday February 11, 2012 – Pier 94 Westside Highway at 55th street

With his own eponymous brand experiencing stratospheric growth, the ever-ambitious Alexander Wang was certainly delighted to hear that his name being floated around as Dior’s or Louis Vuitton’s future head designer. And it seems that the attention may have gotten to him. His Fall 2012 show, with its over the top production and supermodel casting, seemed like a response to the rumor that he’s ready to take the next big step in his career. The ‘mise-en-scene’ was about mirrors, lights, shadows, with a show note asking the guests not to get up after the final walk. A performance? Not exactly. The catwalk cliffhanger, which we’ve seen done many times at Louis Vuitton shows (SS03, SS08), featured a final lineup of legendary models including Frankie Rayder, Karolina Kurkova, Shalom Harlow, Carmen Kass and Gisele Bündchen.

Beyond the theatrics remains a collection focused on leathers and trompe l’oeil effects. Lacquering the majority of the collection’s material including the tweed, Wang gave his fishermen’s coats, skirts, and dual material pants an almost plasticized quality. Later on in the show, the lower half of the model’s faces were covered with fishnet turtlenecks, resembling surgical masks. An interesting styling choice, but sadly we’ve already seen this before. In fact, we’ve seen the exact same display, the showcasing of veteran supermodels with surgical masks, over 4 years ago at the Richard Prince inspired Louis Vuitton Spring 2008 show.

For the front row invitees, a gift bag for lucky editors: a playing card set, a lighter, and a notebook, all wrapped up in faux croc leather. Wang will be launching the objects collection on Monday, which he’s dubbed as “a curation of personal items that fit into our everyday lives”. Think Marc by Marc Jacobs, just with a lot more black and grey involved. As affordably chic as Wang may be, we cannot deny that this expansion into small goods is anything less than a smart business move, opening the Wang clan to more buyer’s budgets and promising growth for the growing global brand.